Display Resolution Problem

[Richard Shaw]

On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Kam Leo <kam.leo at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 3:06 PM, Jack Lauman <jlauman at nwcascades.com> wrote:
>> I have a Compaq Presario 2500 (Model No: 2525US)
>>
>> When booting into run level 3 (command line) on Fedora 9 the video occupies
>> less than 2/3 of the total screen. Using startx to launch xwindows works
>> fine and uses the full screen.
>>
>> Is there a way to control the screen size in run level 3?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Jack
>
> Default runlevel 3 console screen is 80x25 characters.  If you have
> lines of text 132 characters wide then you are at the maximum
> supported, 132x40 characters.
>
> Here is a table of values courtesy of LinuxQuestions.org,
> http://www.linuxquestions.org/blog/archtoad6-147095/2007/12/29/vga-resolution-codes-for-grub-and-lilo-830/
>
>  VGA Resolution Codes for GRUB & Lilo
> --- Depth --
> Colors  bits  640x480  800×600  1024×768  1152×864  1280×1024  1600×1200
>   256    8   vga=769  vga=771   vga=773   vga=353   vga=775    vga=796
>  32000    ?   vga=784  vga=787   vga=790   vga= ?    vga=793    vga= ?
>  65000   16   vga=785  vga=788   vga=791   vga=355   vga=794    vga=798
>  16.7M   24   vga=786  vga=789   vga=792   vga=795   vga=799
>
> Try appending one of the settings ("vga=value") to kernel line in grub
> to optimize viewing the screen.

Another option is to have the kernel tell you what modes your chipset
and display support. When you get to GRUB edit your kernel line and
append "vga=ask" to it. When you reboot it will give you a list of
supported modes. You can type in the 3 digit number to try a mode or
type SCAN to see if it can detect additional modes. Once you find one
you like, change the "ask" portion to the number of the mode but be
sure to put "0x" in front of it.

For example, on my desktop I use 1024x768 and I believe that's 318 so
I would append "vga=0x318" to the kernel line in grub.

Richard